After ranting about how "illegal immigration is modern-day slavery," Beck compares himself to Ben Franklin

Glenn Beck...the actor! Watch his performance carefully... Can TV movies be far behind?

Of course, this is all connected. He picks random crap to talk about every day, and then figures out a way to connect it all. It's like an 8th grade research paper.

1.) Look at the largest corporations in the US. How often do they employ illegals?

2.) Is Beck really saying that folks in the past just pretended to be racist so they could help the slaves become free?

3.) There's a big difference between slaves being kidnapped and shipped from Africa by force and someone from Mexico willing to do anything, including putting their life at great risk, to come work in this great country.

I love the imagery he paints with his message. Basically, if we don't get rid of illegals now, in 50 years, we'll have another civil war.

Is it me or is Beck a 1/4 right on this... Illegal Immigrants are treated like slaves. He does need a history book to understand the intentions of the founding fathers. But wow... seems that he is almost supporting immigrants.

Beck is just trying to find a safe right-winged, conservative argument to keep his ratings up, that's ALL. The writing is on the wall for Beck at FoxNews Channel, so now he must try to find some way in saving his non-sensecal show of hatred against an American President. Beck is riding that wave to the end, LOL.

if he knows the actual def. of slavery and its context in american history, give this guy a hand- he has some serious brass balls. that was cool how he pulled that off...

or, if he didn't know the actual def. of slavery and its context in american history, just let it go... he was probably kidding anyways. OR, someone told beck the story without a fact or two... so, not his fault. chill out.

"The founders despite what revisionist historians say wanted to end slavery. Well not all of them, especially in the south,but most of them".
Alright, alright one or two of em. OK, Thomas Payne the atheiest was the biggest proponent of emancipation but I won't talk about that because that will hurt my argumant about this being a Christian nation.
Gee, thanks for the history lesson about my ancestors being counted as 3/5 of a human being. Thanks Mr. Founders for not counting us as humans so we could be fully human?

And call me crazy, just like Beck, but uhhhhhhh didn't many of the founding fathers actually OWN slaves? T.J. did as did G.W. Hmmmm, somebody needs to read up a little on U.S. history before comparing immigration to slavery methinks.

The founders owned slaves. Sorry Glenn, your argument is another epic fail.

And btw.. Ben Franklin would be disgusted by someone like you. Just saying.

Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. "If an Indian injures me," he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?"

And that, dear friends, is why a racist like beck could never be compared to the likes of Ben Franklin...

As per founding fathers, I don't think Franklin is the one a conservative should pin his cap to. Franklin has a wonderfully eccentric background filled with many many affairs, and an son out of wedlock who was the governor of New Jersey during the American Revolution. But, oh wait, Beck,the patriot, surely knows all of this history, what with his tea parties and what not. You know what could be fun, seeing if Beck could pass the citizenship test, now that I would pay to see. He would probably bail though, like he did on being waterboarded for the troops families...

Beck is fat and bald?

I find it strange how Beck compares himself to Ben Franklin. Didn't Franklin also own slaves before he was against it?

http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html

"Almost all of our country's founding fathers owned slaves at one time or another, including Benjamin Franklin."

"Some scholars believe that Franklin's conversion to abolitionist beliefs was hastened by his animosity towards the British."

"The abolitionist movement in colonial America was fairly limited and considered quite radical."

"Franklin recognized that freed slaves could not fend for themselves without help, so he advanced the idea that slaves needed to be educated in order to become contributing members of a free society."

First note in the third quote Franklin was characterized as a "radical" of his time. Sound famaliar Beck. Isn't Obama a radical?

Next, in the last quote slaves needed help and education. Who was going to pay for that? Of course the government and other charitable organizations. Although that would seem 'Socialist' I'm sure most people would support those ideals today.

Guess what? Many Americans need help today, especially Health Care, Jobs and Housing. It may seem 'Socialist' but with the governments help the economy and people's lives will improve.

slavery by definition is non-voluntary, it doesn't just mean not covered under the national laws as glen beck seems to think. So unless they are being forced to come into this country and stay here, this is NOT slavery. Last I checked, its the opposite - we have a border patrol that tries to keep them out and they sneak in. Im sure slaves snuck into slavery all the time too though. Plus, slaves did not make ANY MONEY for their work. So the immigrants are coming all the way to the US just to work for free? How generous of them. Do they have to pay their employers where they come from or something? So I guess glen is now all of a sudden for immigrants rights and for them to be covered under health insurance? Isnt that what Wilson screamed obama lied about? There is so much confusion and misinformation in this 8 minute clip, a decent response against beck would require writing a novel.

Working with a largely Hispanic school population (many illegals) in a poor area of central Arizona, I think Beck has made some accurate points of how these hard working folks are treated. I know firsthand how my parents are taken advantage of at their jobs. Beck's correct, they don't have rights. I would agree their plight is voluntary as opposed to non-voluntary therefore not really slaves in the historical sense but they have been allowed in and don't have rights. Allow me to expand on the "allowed in" since this relates to politics on a local level. The schools allow illegals to enroll so they can keep their enrollment up -more money! Like Las Vegas - you have to put the butts in the seats. (There is probably some state or federal law to support this enrollment - not knowledgeable on this point.) One consequence translates to reductions in services for the legal students. I witnessed my legal kid with specific learning disabilities not have any program made available as the money went to ESL and AVID programs to support the illegals. Beck has some things right. I think my liberal friends, there are some areas we need to pull our heads out of the sand as you will be affected in a personal way. Wisen up - conservative bashing is not going to improve matters.

Like Ben Franklin, Ha!

At least Ben let go of the key before he fried his brain.

Ben Franklin--you mean the brilliant diplomat, statesman, inventor, business man, once passionate Torey, and esteemed author, who happened to also reject organized religion, rarely mentioned God in all his writings, advocated for all kinds of socialist institutions including FREE HOSPITALS, left his family to fend for themselves in Philly while he openly dallied with young sexpots from the French court? That Ben Franklin or the "conservative Christian family man", the one that the conservative revisionists have made into a cartoon character mascot of the Third Reich--er I mean--Conservative Christian Right? I get the two mixed up...

If illegal immigration is the modern slavery, would Beck then be alluding that he is for emancipation, or would that put him in Obama's future hypothetical opinion?

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I'm confused...

The last 30 years of Republican dominated / corporate destruction of the American dream... very little to near silence spoken by the likes of slimy slugs like Glenn Beck.

Suddenly we have Democrats in the White House and Congress who may very likely will go back to FDR days at some point? or perhaps not?

I see what this clown is doing... he knows perfectly well that the chances of Obama and the Dems getting America to do what Glenn speaks of here, with all the corporate influences in government... this jerk is trying to set up the 'illegal imigrants' to blame the Democrats for all their ills!

Suddenly this piece of trash is concerned about the illegal aliens getting education or being treated fairly and suddenly the corporations should be as much or more to blame? Now he shows concern?

This has been the exact argument made by liberals and progressives for several decades if not centuries, all along being derided by right-wing thugs like Glenn here... and now this neanderthal is trying to claim it as his own??

I would certainly hope that all 'illegals' can see through this lunacy!

In the immortal words of Frank Barone "Holy Crap!"

So Glenn Beck is anti-corporate, pro-big government now? Or was that just yesterday? Dude needs meds.

Glenn Beck: A legend in his own mind.

I knew Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin was a friend of mine. And you sir, are no Ben Franklin.

The solution is to give the slaves full rights including American citizenship, right?

I think a more accurate analogy would be to compare BECK to SEN. JOE McCARTHY.